The present invention relates to a washing machine for the washing of fabrics such as clothes and, more particularly, to a washing machine of the vertical-axis, orbiting type wherein a single basket receives both the items being washed and the washing liquid.
Several attempts have been made to simplify the conventional vertical-axis, agitator type washing machines, and especially the drive mechanisms thereof. The "wobble" type of machine is one such effort. U.S. Pat. No. 2,555,400 to De Remer discloses a wobble type of washing machine including a non-rotating tilted spin shaft which rests against inverted conical walls of a gyrator and is moved in a conical path so that the axis of the basket describes a cone having an apex below the basket. Helical blades on the basket wall provide a vortex motion to the clothes and motion about the rotor axis in a direction opposite to movement of water and direction of gyration. A spring centering force and gyroscopic forces cause the spin shaft axis to move to a vertical position for the spin mode of operation. Many other wobble-type machines are known such as the machine shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,549,824 to Kost, where the tub axis is made to wobble in a conical path while the tub is oscillated about its own axis. The washing motionis accomplished by an inclined post and a ball pivot, extended into a cocked off-center bearing in a worm wheel. An attached slide link provides angular placement of the post about its axis.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,432,766 to Kirby describes a washing machine wherein the clothes-receiving receptacle is caused to execute an orbital movement while at the same time being rotated about its own axis. The motion is achieved by the provision of a nested assembly of interfitting sleeves within which a drive shaft is eccentrically mounted. Rotation of the shaft causes rotation of the basket about its own axis. Although the degree of gyration appears to be much less than in a true wobble-type washer, the motion is still of the nutating or wobble type.
Other washing machines are also known in which the wash basket is oscillated, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,130 in which an oscillatable basket is provided within a washing machine tub. A pair of blades are attached eccentrically to the basket for affecting a washing action. A more dated means of obtaining washing action in a vertical-axis type of machine wherein basket motion rather than agitator motion provides the washing forces is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,688,555 to Rankin wherein two or more clothes chambers revolve around the center of an outer water chamber, at the same time revolving on their own axis.
Commonly-assigned, copending U.S. Patent application by John Bochan, Ser. No. 142,949, filed Apr. 23, 1980, provides a washing machine of the vertical-axis, orbiting type having a relatively simple and uncomplicated drive mechanism and effective to move the wash basket in a circulate path about a reference axis without rotation about its own axis, so that the predominant energy transfer to the load being washed is through the basket sidewall. Washing action is achieved by imparting a toroidal motion to the fabric articles comprising the wash load.
The present invention improves upon the machine of John Bochan by providing a washing machine which operates in generally the same manner as the Bochan machine but with enhanced clothes turnover capability for better washability.